1901
1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar. It was also the first year of the 20th century. Events January forms as British colonies federate.]] * January 1 ** The world celebrates the beginning of the 20th century. ** The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia. Edmund Barton becomes first Prime Minister. ** Nigeria becomes a British protectorate. ** The birth of Pentecostalism at a prayer meeting at Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. * January 5 – Typhoid fever breaks out in a Seattle jail, the first of two typhoid outbreaks in the USA during the year. * January 7 – Alferd Packer is released from prison after serving 18 years for cannibalism. * January 10 – In the first great Texas gusher, oil is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas. * January 22 ** Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom dies at age 81, after more than 63 years on the throne, and her son the Prince of Wales formally succeeds her as King Edward VII. ** The Grand Opera House in Cincinnati is destroyed in a fire. * January 28 – Baseball's American League declares itself a Major League. ascends the British throne and also becomes Emperor of India.]] February * February 2 – Funeral of Queen Victoria in London. * February 5 **Hay-Pauncefote Treaty signed by United Kingdom and United States, ceding control of the Panama Canal to the United States **J Pierpont Morgan buys mines and steel mills in the United States, marking the first billion dollar business deal **In Evansville, IN, a fire burns through the business district, causing $175,000 of damage. * February 6 – First public telephones at railway stations in Paris * February 11 – Anti Jesuit riots sweep across Spain * February 12 – India Viceroy Lord Curzon creates new frontier province in the north of the Punjab, bordering Afghanistan * February 14 – Edward VII opens his first parliament * February 15 – The Alianza Lima Foundation is created in Peru. * February 20 – The Hawaii Territory Legislature convenes for the first time. * February 22 – Pacific mail steamer sinks in Golden Gate Harbor, killing 128 * February 23 – United Kingdom and Germany agree the frontier between German East Africa and the British colony of Nyasaland * February 26 ** Chi-hsui and Hsu-cheng-yu, Boxer Rebellion leaders, executed in Peking ** Middelburg peace conference fails in South Africa as Boers continue to demand autonomy * February 27 – The Sultan of Turkey orders 50,000 troops to the Bulgarian frontier because of unrest in Macedonia March * March 1 – United Kingdom, Germany and Japan protest at Sino-Russian agreement on Manchuria. * March 2 – The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment, limiting the autonomy of Cuba as a condition for the withdrawal of American troops. * March 4 – United States President William McKinley begins his second term. Theodore Roosevelt becomes Vice President of the United States. * March 5 – Irish nationalist demonstrators ejected by police from House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London. * March 6 – In Bremen, an assassin attempts to kill Wilhelm II of Germany * March 11 – United Kingdom rejects amended Hay-Pauncefote treaty. * March 13 – Benjamin Harrison, 23rd president of the United States, dies of pneumonia at age 67. * March 17 ** A showing of 71 Vincent van Gogh paintings in Paris, 11 years after his death, creates a sensation. ** Student riots in St Petersburg and Moscow. * March 18 – Patrick Donahoe, businessman and publisher of the Catholic newspaper the Boston Pilot, dies of old age at 90. * March 31 – The United Kingdom Census 1901 is taken. Wilhelm II of Germany survives an assassination attempt.]] April * April 25 – New York State becomes the first to require automobile license plates. * April 29 – Anti-Jewish rioting breaks out in Budapest. May * May 3 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, FL. * May 5 – The Caste War of Yucatán officially ends, although Mayan skirmishers continue sporadic fighting for another decade. * May 9 – Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne. * May 17 – The U.S. stock market crashes. * May 24 – 78 miners die in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales. * May 25 – The Club Atlético River Plate is founded in Argentina. * May 27 – In New Jersey, the Edison Storage Battery Company is founded. * May 28 – Iran (known as Persia until 1935) grants William Knox D'Arcy a concession, giving him the right to prospect for oil. June * June 2 – Katsura Taro becomes Prime Minister of Japan. * June 12 – Cuba becomes a U.S. protectorate. becomes a United States protectorate.]] July * July 1 – Bureau of Chemistry within Department of Agriculture. * July 4 – The 1,282 foot (390 m) covered bridge crossing the St. John River at Hartland, New Brunswick, Canada opens. It is the longest covered bridge in the world. * July 4 – William Howard Taft becomes Governor-General of the Philippines/ * July 24 – O. Henry is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio after serving 3 years for embezzlement from the First National Bank in Austin, Texas. August * August 5 – Peter O'Connor sets the first International Association of Athletics Federations recognised long jump world record of 24 ft 11¾ins. The record will stand for 20 years. * August 6 – Discovery Expedition: Robert Falcon Scott sets sail on the [[RRS Discovery|RRS Discovery]] to explore the Ross Sea in Antarctica. * August 28 – Silliman University is founded in the Philippines. The first American private school in the country."NHI Resolution No.7, Series 2002". National Historical Institute. Retrieved 2010-03-30. * August 30 – Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum cleaner. September in China ends with the signing of the Peking Protocol.]] becomes President of the United States on the death of William McKinley.]] * September 2 – U.S. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt utters the famous phrase, "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair. * September 5 – The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (later renamed Minor League Baseball), is formed in Chicago. * September 6 – American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots U.S. President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies 8 days later. * September 7 – The Boxer Rebellion in China officially ends with the signing of the Boxer Protocol. * September 14 – Theodore Roosevelt succeeds William McKinley as President of the United States. * September 26 – The body of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is exhumed and reinterred in concrete several feet thick. October * October 2 – The Royal Navy's first submarine is launched at Barrow. * October 4 – The American yacht Columbia defeats the Irish Shamrock in the America's Cup yachting race. * October 16 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt invites African American leader Booker T. Washington to the White House. The American South reacts angrily to the visit, and racial violence increases in the region. * October 23 – Yale University celebrates its bicentennial. * October 24 – Michigan schoolteacher Annie Taylor goes down Niagara Falls in a barrel and survives. * October 29 – In Amherst, New Hampshire, nurse Jane Toppan is arrested for murdering the Davis family of Boston with an overdose of morphine. November * November 1 – Sigma Phi Epsilon is founded in Richmond, VA. * November 9 – The Prince George, Duke of Cornwall (later George V) becomes Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester. * November 15 – The Alpha Sigma Alpha Fraternity is founded at Longwood University. * November 25 – Auguste Deter is first examined by German psychiatrist Dr Alois Alzheimer, leading to a diagnosis of the condition that will carry his name. * November 28 – The new state constitution of Alabama requires voters to have passed literacy tests. December * December 3 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits". * December 10 – The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held in Stockholm on the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. * December 12 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent from Poldhu in England to Newfoundland, Canada; it is the letter "S" in Morse. * December 20 – The final spike is driven into the Mombasa-Victoria-Uganda Railway in what is now Kisumu, Kenya. Date unknown * Scotland Yard creates a fingerprint archive. * Europium is isolated by Eugène-Anatole Demarçay. * William S. Harley draws up plans for his first prototype motorcycle. * The okapi is observed for the first time (previously known only to local natives). * The Independent Maya of Eastern Yucatán surrender to Mexico. * The Intercollegiate Prohibition Association is established in Chicago. * Shō Tai (Shang Tai), the last king of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in modern Okinawa, Japan, dies. * New Zealand inventor Ernest Godward invents the spiral hairpin, one of the most widely used devices on the planet. * The first reliable census in India is taken. * RMS Lucania is the first Cunard ship to receive a Wireless Radio set. Births January–February * January 1 – Julia Bathory, Hungarian glass designer (died 2000) * January 3 – Ngo Dinh Diem, 1st President of South Vietnam (died 1963) * January 4 – CLR James, Trinidad-born writer and journalist (died 1989) * January 9 – Chic Young, American cartoonist (died 1973) * January 10 – Henning von Tresckow, Major General in the German Wehrmacht (died 1944) * January 11 – Kwon Ki-ok, Korean pilot (died 1988) * January 13 ** A. B. Guthrie, American novelist, historian (died 1991) ** Mieczysław Żywczyński, Polish historian and priest (died 1978) * January 14 ** Bebe Daniels, American actress (died 1971) ** Alfred Tarski, Polish logician and mathematician (died 1983) * January 16 ** Fulgencio Batista, Cuban leader (died 1973) ** Frank Zamboni, American inventor (died 1988) * January 20 – Mohammed Naguib, 1st President of Egypt (died 1984) * January 21 – Marcellus Boss, American politician and lawyer, member of Kansas Senate and 5th Civilian Governor of Guam (died 1967) * January 24 ** Hans Erich Apostel, Austrian composer (died 1972) ** Harry Calder, South African cricketer (died 1995) * January 26 – Stuart Symington, American politician (died 1988) * January 27 – Art Rooney, American football team owner (died 1988) * January 29 – E. P. Taylor, Canadian business tycoon (died 1989) * January 30 – Rudolf Caracciola, German race car driver (died 1959) * February 1 ** Frank Buckles, last surviving American veteran of World War I (died 2011) ** Clark Gable, American actor (died 1960) * February 2 – Jascha Heifetz, Lithuanian violinist (died 1987) * February 8 – Virginius Dabney, American teacher, journalist, writer and editor (died 1995) * February 10 – Stella Adler, American actress (died 1992) * February 15 – João Branco Núncio, Portuguese bullfighter (died 1976) * February 19 – Florence Green, Last surviving World war I veteran (died 2012) * February 22 – Mildred Davis, American actress (died 1969) * February 25 – Zeppo Marx, American comedian (died 1979) * February 27 – Horatio Luro, Argentine horse trainer (died 1991) * February 28 – Linus Pauling, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Peace (died 1994) March–April * March 3 – Claude Choules, British WWI veteran and last combat veteran from any nation (died 2011) * March 4 ** Charles Goren, American bridge player (died 1991) ** Jean Joseph Rabearivelo, Malagasy-French poet (died 1937) * March 17 – Alfred Newman, American film composer (died 1970) * March 21 ** Karl Arnold, German politician (died 1958) ** Carmelita Geraghty, American actress (died 1966) * March 22 – Greta Kempton, American artist (died 1991) * March 24 – Ub Iwerks, American cartoonist (died 1971) * March 27 ** Carl Barks, American cartoonist (died 2000) ** Erich Ollenhauer, German politician (died 1963) ** Enrique Santos Discépolo, Argentine tango and milonga musician and composer (died 1951) ** Eisaku Sato, Prime Minister of Japan, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1975) ** Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet (died 1971) * March 28 – Jack Weil, American entrepreneur (died 2008) * April 1 – Whittaker Chambers, American spy (died 1961) * April 15 – Joe Davis, English snooker and billiards player (died 1978) * April 18 – Al Lewis, American songwriter (died 1967) * April 29 – Emperor Hirohito of Japan (died 1989) * April 30 – Simon Kuznets, Ukrainian-born economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1985) May–June * May 7 – Gary Cooper, American actor (died 1961) * May 17 – Werner Egk, German composer (died 1983) * May 18 – Vincent du Vigneaud, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1978) * May 20 – Max Euwe, Dutch chess player (died 1981) * May 21 ** Manfred Aschner, German-born Israeli microbiologist and entomologist, recipient of the Israel Prize (died 1989). ** Horace Heidt, American bandleader (died 1986) ** Sam Jaffe, American film producer (died 2000) ** Suzanne Lilar, Belgian essayist, novelist, and playwright (died 1992) * May 25 – Antônio de Alcântara Machado, Brazilian novelist (died 1935) * May 31 – Alfredo Antonini, American conductor and composer (died 1983) * June 3 – Chang Hsüeh-liang, Chinese military leader (died 2001) * June 6 – Sukarno, first President of Indonesia (died 1970) * June 12 – Arnold Kirkeby, American hotelier, art collector, and real estate investor (d. 1962) * June 13 – Tage Erlander, Swedish politician (social democrat), prime minister of Sweden for 23 years (1946–1969) (died 1985) * June 17 – F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, English World War II hero (died 1964) * June 18 – Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia (died 1918) * June 23 – Chuck Taylor, American basketball player and salesman (died 1969) * June 24 – Marcel Mule, French saxophonist (died 2001) * June 24 – Harry Partch, American composer (died 1974) * June 29 – Nelson Eddy, American singer and actor (died 1967) July–August * July 7 – Eiji Tsuburaya, Japanese film director and special effects designer (died 1970) * July 9 – Barbara Cartland, English novelist (died 2000) * July 17 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (died 1938) * July 20 – Heinie Manush, American baseball player (died 1971) * July 21 – Albert Hamilton Gordon, American businessman and philanthropist (died 2009) * July 24 – Mabel Albertson, American actress (died 1982) * July 31 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter (died 1985) * August 1 – Pancho Villa, Filipino boxer (died 1925) * August 4 – Louis Armstrong, American jazz musician (died 1971) * August 8 – Ernest Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1958) * August 10 – Franco Dino Rasetti, Italian scientist (died 2001) * August 14 – Alice Rivaz, Swiss writer (died 1998) * August 18 – Jean Guitton, French writer and philosopher (died 1999) * August 20 – Salvatore Quasimodo, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968) * August 26 ** Maxwell Taylor, American general (died 1987) ** Chen Yi, Chinese military commander and politician (died 1972) * August 28 – Babe London, American actress and comedian (died 1980) * August 30 – John Gunther, American writer (died 1970) September–October * September 9 ** James Blades, English percussionist (died 1999) ** Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa (died 1966) * September 12 ** Ben Blue, Canadian-born comedian and actor (died 1975) ** Shmuel Horowitz, Russian-born Israeli agronomist (died 1999) * September 15 – Sir Donald Bailey, British civil engineer (died 1985) * September 22 ** Charles B. Huggins, Canadian-born cancer researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (died 1997) **Nadezhda Alliluyeva-Stalin, second wife of Joseph Stalin (died 1932) * September 23 – Jaroslav Seifert, Czech writer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1986) * September 24 – Gerald Warner Brace, American writer, educator, sailor and boat builder (died 1978) * September 25 – Gordon Coventry, Australian rules footballer (died 1968) * September 26 – George Raft, American film actor (died 1980) * September 28 ** Ed Sullivan, American entertainer (died 1974) ** William S. Paley, American businessman (CBS) (died 1990) * September 29 ** Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1954) ** Lanza del Vasto, Italian philosopher, poet, and activist (died 1981) * October 2 – Alice Prin, French singer (died 1953) * October 10 – Alberto Giacometti, Swiss sculptor (died 1966) * October 24 ** Gilda Gray, Polish-born dancer and actress (died 1959) ** Moultrie Kelsall, Scottish film and television actor (died 1980) November–December * November 3 – Léopold III of Belgium (died 1983) * November 4 ** Masako Nashimoto, Crown Princess of Korea (died 1989) ** Max Wagner, Mexican-born American film actor (died 1975) * November 7 – Norah McGuinness, Irish painter and illustrator (died 1980) * November 13 – Arturo Jauretche, Argentine writer, politician, and philosopher (died 1974) * November 18 – George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (died 1984) * November 22 – Joaquin Rodrigo, Spanish composer (died 1999) * November 28 – Walter Havighurst, American critic, novelist, literary and social historian of the Midwest, professor of English at Miami University, (died 1994) * November 29 – Mildred Harris, American actress (died 1944) * December 5 ** Milton Erickson, American psychiatrist (died 1980) ** Walt Disney, American animator and film producer (died 1966) ** Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1976) * December 8 – Arthur Leslie, British actor (died 1970) * December 16 – Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist (died 1978) * December 19 – Rudolf Hell, German inventor (died 2002) * December 25 – Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (died 2004) * December 27 – Marlene Dietrich, German-American actress (died 1992) * December 31 – Karl-August Fagerholm, Prime Minister of Finland (died 1984) Deaths January–June * January 1 – Ignatius L. Donnelly, U.S. politician and writer (born 1831) * January 8 – John Barry, Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross (born 1873) * January 10 – Sir James Dickson, Premier of Queensland, Australian Minister for Defence (born 1832 * January 11 – Vasily Kalinnikov, Russian composer (born 1866) * January 14 – Víctor Balaguer, Spanish politician and author, (born 1824) * January 16 ** Arnold Böcklin, Swiss artist (born 1827) ** Mahadev Govind Ranade, Indian reformer (born 1842) * January 21 – Elisha Gray, American inventor and appliance manufacturer (born 1835) * January 22 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Empress of India (born 1819) * January 27 – Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (born 1813) * February 11 – King Milan I of Serbia (born 1854) * February 22 – George Francis FitzGerald, Irish mathematician (born 1851) * February 26 – Lucyna Ćwierczakiewiczowa, Polish writer (born 1829) * March 13 – Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States (born 1833) * April 3 – Richard D'Oyly Carte, English impresario (born 1844) * April 19 – Alfred Horatio Belo, American businessman and newswriter (born 1839) * May 1 – Lewis Waterman, American inventor and businessman (born 1837) * May 5 – Axel Wilhelm Eriksson, Swedish settler and trader in south-west Africa (born 1846) * May 22 – Gaetano Bresci Italian anarchist and assassin (born 1869) * May 24 – Charlotte Mary Yonge, English novelist (born 1823) * June 2 – George Leslie Mackay, Canadian missionary (born 1844) * June 9 – Walter Besant, English writer (born 1836) July–December * July 4 – Johannes Schmidt, German linguist (born 1843) * July 6 – Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chancellor of Germany (born 1819) * April 15 – John Irwin, American admiral (b. 1832) * August 5 – Victoria, Empress of Germany (born 1840) * August 12 – Francesco Crispi, Italian Prime Minister (born 1819) * August 24 – Clara Maass, American nurse (born 1876) * September 5 – Ignacij Klemenčič, Slovenian physicist (born 1853) * September 9 – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (born 1864) * September 14 – William McKinley, 25th President of the United States (born 1843) * October 1 – Abdor Rahman Khan, Emir of Afghanistan (born 1844) * October 10 – Lorenzo Snow, Mormon leader (born 1814) * October 19 – Carl Frederik Tietgen, Danish financier and industrialist (born 1829) * October 29 – Leon Czolgosz, Polish-American assassin of U.S. President William McKinley (born 1873) * November 7 – Li Hongzhang, Chinese general (born 1823) * November 27 – Clement Studebaker, American manufacturer (born 1831) * November 30 – Edward John Eyre, English explorer (born 1815) * December 1 – George Lohmann, English cricketer (born 1865) Nobel Prizes * Physics – Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen * Chemistry – Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff * Medicine – Emil Adolf von Behring * Literature – Sully Prudhomme * Peace – Jean Henri Dunant and Frédéric Passy Significance of 1901 for modern computers The date of Friday December 13 20:45:52 1901 is significant for modern computers because it is the earliest date representable with a signed 32-bit integer on systems that reference time in seconds since the Unix epoch. This corresponds to -2147483648 seconds from Thursday January 1 00:00:00 1970. For the same reason, many computers are also unable to represent an earlier date. For related reasons, many computer systems suffer from the Year 2038 problem. This is when the positive number of seconds since 1970 exceeds 2147483647 (01111111 11111111 11111111 11111111 in binary) and wraps to -2147483648. Hence the computer system erroneously displays or operates on the time Friday December 13 20:45:52 1901. In this way, the year 1900 is to the Year 2000 problem as is the year 1901 to the Year 2038 problem. References * Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia...1901 (1902); highly detailed compilation of facts and primary documents; worldwide coverage online edition Category:1901